2014.12.19, “Trithekti” Liturgical Ceremony

On December 19, 2014, the “Trithekti”, a long abandoned Christmas liturgical ceremony, took place at theChurch ofTransfiguration in Volos, attended by numerousclergyandlaityof the city. The event was organized by the Municipality of Volos(Departmentof Culture, directed by ChryssaDrantaki) and the VolosAcademyfor TheologicalStudies (Departmentof Psaltic Art andMusicology, directed by Konstantinos Karagounis). The service, which was ledby Metropolitanof Demetriasand AlmyrosIgnatius, withthe participationof the Chanting Choir “Trikis Melodoi”(from Trikala, Greece under the leadership of ProfessorDimitriosBalageorgos)and the ChantingChoir of the Volos Chanters Association (directed by Professor Konstantinos Karagounis).

The ceremony was prefacedwitha brief speech by Prof. Karagounis (Supreme Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens), Director of the Department of Psaltic Art, who pointed out thatone year afterthe its first officialmanifestation,the Departmenthas already published two well-received books, has organized an international musicological conference (in summer 2014) and has twenty participations in musicologicalconferencesin Greeceand abroad, while a lot of programming is going on for the future.

This introduction was followed by a lectureon the Byzantine rites by Prof.DimitriosBalageorgos (University of Athens). In his speech, Prof. Balageorgos described brieflybutclearly theevolution of theRites through the centuries,explainingthe meaningand contentof the secular (non-monastic) Rite, the so-called Asmatiki Akolouthia, and the reasonsthat led to its decline and abandonment after the fall of Constantinoplein1453. The text of the Trithekti was discovered andpublishedby the lateProf. Ioannis Fountoulis (University of Thessaloniki),whileits restorationforliturgicaluse and the musical re-composition was elaborated by the Prof.Gregorios Stathis (University of Athens), withthe approvalof the Holy Synodof the Churchof Greece, in 1999. Since then, this serviceis celebratedevery yearinsome Dioceses in Greece and all over the world.

During the service of the Trithekti,MetropolitanIgnatiusrecitedthe complete 6th century Christmaskontakion“The Virgin today is giving birth to the Super-essence …” , which, with the exception of the well-known opening hymn, is also an abandoned poem, very rarely performed in its entirety in contemporary churches.At the endof theservice, Metropolitan Ignatiusthankedandblessed theclergy, the faithfulpeople, thechoirs and the Municipality, while he underlinedthe significance of the workdone in theVolosAcademyfor TheologicalStudies, which recently was awarded the status of a National Research Center.